The Destined Protector (The Chronicles of Mistar - Book 1)

Six · · · Mell

Aca Forests, Casta, Pezda

MELL WOKE UP SHIVERING LIKE SHE WAS ON THE PLANET OF GAZAR, sitting in the cold dark forests under the kakama trees. When Mell opened her eyes, she couldn't see anything. Everything around her was pitch black.

Ryn!

His name was the first thing that came to her mind. Where was he? Mell needed to know. Ophryn was the only one who had tried his hardest to protect her and he was a Pent. Her mortal enemy. Sure, the Castan soldiers did too, but they failed. They failed miserably.

Now, all Mell needed was to get out of..., whatever this place was.

Mell started blinking her eyes, trying to make them adjust to the darkness though she still couldn't see. Mell stood up, but too quickly. She became light-headed and fell back to the floor. Mell breathed heavily and waited till the blood rush went away. Then she slowly stood up and waited to see if she would become light-headed again.

When she didn't, Mell shuffled her feet forward with her arms outstretched until her fingers touched a wall of dirt. To know where she had been, she first dug her fingers into the wall making a small indent at shoulder length. Mell then dug her whole fist into the wall so it would be easier to find. She could feel the dirt hit her toes.

Then it hit her. She wasn't wearing her shoes and she only had on a pair of skin-tight shorts with a skin-tight tank top when she felt the clothes on her body. Her pants and jacket were gone and she felt like she was standing in her underwear in front of a huge crowd, but there was so crowd.

Mell stuck her pointer finger in her hole and moved forward. The line was so she would be able to find her way back. She could feel the dirt piling up in her fingernail, but she didn't care. It was the only way she would get out of here, possibly.

After walking for what seemed like forever, Mell gave up and turned around. It must have been a hallway of some sort. A tunnel maybe?

Soon, her finger landed in the hole she had made and she started to make another line in the other direction. Mell felt like the tunnel would never stop. This side of the tunnel seemed to go on forever too, so she finally turned around again and stopped when her finger landed in the hole. As Mell sunk to the ground, she traced another line with her finger until her bottom landed on the cold cement floor.

Mell felt like crying. She was alone, in the dark, half-naked, cold, and she didn't know where she was. Mell wiped her tears away as she hugged her knees with her other arm trying to stay warm. She knew that if she could see, she would probably be able to see her own breath. If Mell was stuck here any longer, she could die of hypothermia.

Shivers ran long Mell's spine, and it wasn't just because she was cold. She felt like there was a presence with her as if there was someone else in the room. When she held her breath to listen, Mell thought she heard a silent shaky breath that almost sounded nonexistent.

Then her questioning was confirmed.

A female's raspy voice spoke in Wanish with an accent Mell had never heard of. She sounded old and as if she inhaled a gallon of smoke.

"Blue is the color of the sky," the woman spoke, "which is also the color of a Lotnan's face when sad. Did you know?"

Mell held her breath. She was frightened. The voice scared her and surprised her. Mell squeezed her legs tighter and didn't respond.

The woman she couldn't see answered it anyway. "Yes, you do. You are a princess. A very pretty princess, Mattite."

That was a new name. Mell had never been called that before. It was the Lotnan word for precious which this woman had turned into a name. Mell only knew this due to her duties put on by her mother to learn every language in Mistar. Mell was nowhere close to knowing all the different languages by heart, but her favorite word in Lot was mattite.

Still, Mell didn't speak. She sat quietly, hiding her face. Mell could feel a presence of fear and she was pretty sure it was coming from the woman's voice. Mell knew that she should run away, but she was too afraid to move. The voice made her shrivel into a ball, scared for her life. Mell wanted to scream, but all that came out of her mouth was a whimper.

"Mattite?" she soothed almost like a question. "Open your eyes." Her voice almost sounded like she was laughing. "Little Mattite? Open your eyes my darling. I have a surprise."

When Mell didn't say anything, the voice turned rigid and it made her jump. "Open your eyes!" she growled.

The woman's voice became deep now. It sounded as if a demon was trapped inside of her, begging to come out. The woman screamed again and even through her closed eyelids, she could see a bright light of yellow-green.

"Open your eyes!" she screamed again. Mell was prone to call her it now. She wasn't sure if it was actually a female or a person at all.

At its words, Mell cried, tears sliding through her closed eyelids. "Please, stop," she whispered into the night.

"Ooh," the witch laughed. "I only can if you open them."

A loud bang sounded throughout the dark lit room.

Mell squeezed her eyes shut harder than before. It wanted her to open them, which made her not want to do it any more than she already had.

It laughed again and in a few minutes, the presence of fear was gone. Mell could now breathe normally and so was the beat of her heart. Mell slowly opened her eyes, the yellow-green light was gone now. She was alone in the dark with nowhere to go but forward or backward. Personally, Mell didn't want to move. She just wanted to sit still. Have everything stop and for herself to wake up in bed on the top of the trees in her kingdom of Casta.

That wasn't going to happen though. Mell was stuck in this cold, dark, damp dungeon that made her ache from head to toe. To get her out of her daydreams, all she had to do was think of Ryn. His soft black, curly hair that bounced with every step. Somehow, his voice made her calm so she would think of his words.

As she sat there in the dark, Mell imagined his voice against her ear. Thank you, was what he had whispered and the words, My friends call me Ryn.

Mell touched her ear as if it turned warm through his voice even though it wasn't really there. Mell liked him, even though she didn't want to admit it. In her mind, she could imagine his freckles painted so neatly onto his face. Mell shook the image out of her mind and she could feel the fear return. The witch was coming back. Yes, that's what she would call it. The Witch.